Roman Baths

Going to the baths was an important part of Roman life, and, besides some smaller private baths, Trier had three large public baths: the newly discovered Forum Baths, the Barbara Baths, and the Imperial Baths, the latter two being the largest baths outside Rome.

People bathed naked (not always separately), could engage in sports, sit in cold and hot baths, swim, get a massage, have the body hair removed by tweezers or wax, and be cleaned with the help of scrapers, pumice stone, or fermented urine. They could relax, gamble, do business, go to the hairdresser's, libraries, reciting rooms, or pubs.

Kaiserthermen (Imperial Baths)

Ruins of the 4th century. Roman bath with hot water bath, cold water bath and sports grounds. Preserved are the masonry of the hot water baths and extensive cellar area.

When you enter the Imperial Baths (Kaiserthermen, fee) you will first come to the hot water bath (large enough for present-day theater and opera performances complete with stage, orchestra, and 650 seats). The incoming cold water was heated in altogether six boiler rooms, four of which are visible in the 19m (62 ft) high ruins which later served as a part of the medieval city wall. The 40° C/104° F hot water was then conducted into the three semicircular pools for the bathers. A hollow-floor heating system heated the pool floors as well as the rectangular central part of the vaulted hall. You can descend from here into the underground service tunnels and then continue to the cold water bath. The sports grounds are located outside the enclosed facilities.

Thermen am Forum (Forum Baths)

Continuing towards the Moselle along Kaiserstrasse, the visitor passes the site of the Roman Forum (no longer visible today) near which the Forum Baths were found in 1987. Excavations for an underground parking garage brought to light the remains of a bath from around A.D. 100 underneath air-raid shelters from the Second World War, the remains of a seventeenth century Capucinian monastery, former vineyards, and two old cemeteries. The two hot-water baths, a surprisingly well preserved cold-water bath, hollow-floor heating systems, sewer canals, and massive walls on deep foundations are accessible as a combination of excavations and museum.

Barbarathermen (Barbara Baths)

Roman baths dating from 2nd century, You will find them in Südallee 48, next to the Modern Jewish Synagogue (built in 1957).

The Barbara Baths (fee) were built in the second century as the then largest Roman baths. The extensive ruins were used as a castle in the Middle Ages, then torn down and recycled as building material until the remains were used for constructing the Jesuit College in 1610. Only the foundations and the subterranean service tunnels have survived, but the technical details of the sewer systems, the furnaces, the pools, and the heating system can be studied better than in the other two baths. Although only one third of the original facility has been excavated, a tour of the passageways takes a surprisingly long time.